The Truth
by And The Moment's Gone
Summary: While the floors underneath our feet are crumblin', the walls we built together tumblin', I still stand here holding up the roof. 'Cause it's easier than telling the truth…
1. Chapter 1

_**Title: The Truth  
>Category: TV Shows » Revenge<br>Author: And The Moment's Gone  
>Language: English, Rating: Rated: t<br>Genre: Angst/General  
>Published: 03-16-12,<br>Chapter: Prologue, Words: 1,766**_

_**Warnings**_**/**_**Spoilers**_**: If you haven't seen through 1×13 (**_**Commitment**_**) then stop reading now if you don't want to be spoiled. I have played a little fast and loose with the events of certain things in 1×14 (**_**Perception**_**) and there is no reference to any thing past that. If there's anything you don't understand, please don't hesitate to ask.**

_**Summary: While the floors underneath our feet are crumblin', the walls we built together tumblin', I still stand here holding up the roof. 'Cause it's easier than telling the truth… **_

_**Official Disclaimer**_**: All Revenge characters and plots belong to Mike Kelley and ABC. I do not hold stock either the man or the company. Emily Thorne, Nolan Ross, and any other character featured are NOT mine. The title and summary comes from the Kris Allen song **_**The Truth **_**and I don't own that either.**

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><p><em>11:56 pm<br>__Thursday, August 25__th__, 2011  
><em>_Southampton, New York_

The call came on a Thursday night, so close to Friday morning that Nolan couldn't tell the difference.

It had been a mildly uneventful evening, spent with a recovering Jack at his home for no reason other than he didn't feel like going to whatever charity event was being hosted by an up and coming socialite. Emily had texted him from the party, threatening violence due to his absence, but he simply reminded her that her engagement party was a little over a week away, and that she didn't get to demand a public audience until then. He'd sent Jack home early when the pain meds had gotten the better of the man, then Nolan himself had played Grand Theft Auto until he could no longer keep his eyes open.

"Whatdyawant?" Nolan rolled to his side to check the clock by his bed, wishing he'd been awake enough to look at the caller id.

"Hey man," the voice on the other end was tentative, and Nolan could just barely recognize the drawl. "It's Declan." Nolan must have grunted, because Declan took a breath. "There's been an accident - you need to get to South Hampton Hospital."

Nolan sat up then, rubbing his eyes and a hand through his hair. He accidentally popped a contact out and didn't bother to try to figure out where it landed. "Jack?" He asked quickly. After the incident with the tapes he could have sworn that Emily had removed the man from Victoria's crosshairs.

The younger man took an audible breath and then mumbled something to someone on his end of the phone. "No," he said softly. "Emily." Nolan cursed as Declan began rambling about a car accident. "Just get here."

Nolan hug on up the kid and made a mental note to apologize later. He shouted for Big Ed even as he threw his covers off of his legs and reached for the first article of clothing that he could find. He'd just pulled his pants over his hips when Ed entered the room, scanning for the reason for his boss's distress. "Emily was in an accident." He announced, blindly reaching for something to cover his torso. "- need to get the hospital."

Even though he was missing a few words, Ed nodded. "I'll get the car." He flipped on Nolan's bedroom light as he left the room, reminding the computer wiz that he needed shoes.

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><p><em>12:38 pm<br>__Friday, August 26__th__, 2011  
><em>_Southampton, New York_

The emergency room at South Hampton was one of the most relaxed that Nolan could honestly say he'd ever seen in his life. Then again, in peak season, the doctors and nurses were more prone to see the results of alcohol-induced stupidity than true casualties. Nolan wasn't the least bit surprised, when Ed dropped him off and circled to park, that he was able to just walk up to the intake desk and someone directed him to where Emily had been taken.

Declan seemed to be waiting for him in the doorway of the hall that the helpful nurse had pointed him toward. The kid looked shaken, but fine, and Nolan was a little glad that he wouldn't have to make that phone call to Jack. "They've moved her into the OR." Declan offered quickly, "Everyone's in the waiting room, but they won't tell the Grayson's anything."

If it had been any other night, and he had been in the hospital for any other event, Nolan would have honestly laughed at that statement. Instead he rotated his wrist and continued to follow Declan down the hall. "Why not?"

"They're not family." It was something that Declan had heard the surgical nurse say half a dozen times before he decided that he was going to wait for Nolan in the hall. It had been the nurse, after looking over Emily's chart and a handful of papers that had been in her wallet, that had asked if there was a way for Nolan to be reached. While it had confused some, Declan had dutifully pulled out his cell and dialed. When Nolan reached the end of the hall, the younger man slid past him to open the door first.

Suddenly Nolan wished he had put some thought into what he was wearing. While comfortable and within arms reach after he had gotten off of the phone with Declan, his MIT hoodie and the tattered pair of jeans he lounged around the house in made him feel even more like he didn't belong coupled with the Hampton's elite. And there were plenty of them in the room, lounging about as if this were a continuation of the dinner party that they had just attended. The entire room turned the second Declan let the door slam behind them and Ashley squeaked his name in surprise.

"Mr. Ross?" On the far side of the room Daniel and his father seemed to be unsuccessfully grilling a scrub clad woman, and the way that she froze them out when Ashley said his name was almost comical.

It was a shame that Nolan didn't have time to appreciate the true satire that had become his evening. "What happened to Emily?"

"You're Nolan Ross?"

He resisted the urge to snap at the woman, choosing instead to bite his lip and take a deep breath. "Didn't we already establish that?" He questioned harshly, "What happened to Emily?

"There's been an accident," the woman phrased carefully.

"You mean this isn't a garden party?" His next breath was deeper and he looked at the badge hanging from the pocket of her scrubs. "Nurse Hardtman, is there any way possible that I can get you to stop telling me things that I already know and get on the things that I need to?"

"She left before the rest of us did." Daniel stated after a moment, while the woman was trying to regroup. "They found her car flipped over on Montauk Highway. Her seatbelt was off and her car had apparently gone over a few times."

"We're going to skip over the reason why you weren't with her," Nolan looked around the room and realized that Declan was back in Charlotte's arms, the heiress curled into her boyfriend's lap. He turned back to the woman. "What's going on?"

"From what the trauma team could see, she hit her head and neck in the crash and her lung collapsed." He exhaled when he realized that this was probably less then routine for the woman. "The surgical team has already started assessing the damage and making the proper - "

Nolan ran a hand over his head and noted quickly that Ed had made it into the room. "Then what do you need from me?"

It wasn't until her lips had started moving that it hit him. "You were listed on an advanced directive that was found in her personal affects as her next of kin."

The expletive that escaped his lips was slightly louder than he intended it to be - and Nolan was fairly certain it wasn't English. "Of course she did." He muttered harshly, running his hand over his hair again. "What do you need from me?" He repeated.

Nurse Hardtman gestured to a clipboard that she had most likely set down before Nolan had entered the room. "There are a few informed consent forms that need to be signed." She offered up, handing him a pen. "Just a formality really, saying that you know the situation and are allowing us to do what we need to to save her life."

He autographed the lines that she pointed out carefully, his eyes scanning the document automatically. "Yeah," he muttered; "Whatever she needs."

After dotting a period next to his last name on the form that allowed South Hampton to contact her personal physician for a medical work up, the nurse reached for the pen. "If you want to have a seat, we'll let you know as soon as we have something."

Nolan damn near bit a hole in his lip as he nodded, immediately pulling his iPhone from its holster. "Damn it Emily. There are things you warn a person about." He said to himself, scrolling through his contacts as he searched for the number to his lawyer. Daniel was watching every movement he made from where he left him, but he honestly didn't care. "I don't know either," he barked to the room. Nolan hit _call_ and held his cell to his ear. At quarter after one in the morning, he wasn't expecting the man to answer the phone on first ring, but it was a message that he needed to make sure he left. "Dawson, Nolan." He started, finally noting just how many Grayson's were staring at him at the moment. "I need you to come to the Hamptons as soon as you hear this." Nolan took a deep breath and turned to face the corner, dropping his voice. "Now." He tapped the end button idly and debated asking Ed to attempt to find him some drinkable coffee.

He settled for a Mountain Dew and his laptop, choosing to sit on the floor on the side of the room opposite from Queen Victoria with glasses that he could have sworn he broke years ago perched on the bridge of his nose. He has various responses from trauma surgeons and specialists from around the world that he'd contacted inquiring about the possible outcomes of the turn of events that Emily's life had taken, and he deleted the ones that state that chances are she'll be fine in favor of the ones that tell him the truth.

He doesn't want to admit that luck could possibly on their side.

It's not until six in the morning, five hours after his initial call, that he got a text from his lawyer asking for authorization to take the NoleCorp jet from California or a recommendation on alternative travel. Nolan responded without thinking, knowing that Dawson has worked long enough to understand that _whatever the fuck gets you here fastest_ means the jet is acceptable. A flight-plan from the jet's pilot shows up in his inbox ten minutes later and he forwards it to his personal assistant in the city to make sure there's a car waiting for the man when he lands, driver optional.

His eyes scanned the room, noting that half of society had gone back to their homes and Queen Victoria with them, before he double checked the NoleCorp pre-market trading numbers and fired up his search engine.

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><p>Just an idea that was thrown around. What does everyone think?<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

_**Title: The Truth  
>Category: TV Shows <strong>__**»**__** Revenge  
>Author: And The Moment's Gone<br>Language: English, Rating: Rated: t  
>Genre: AngstGeneral  
>Published: 03-16-12,<br>Chapter: Prologue, Words: 1,766**_

_**Warnings**_**/**_**Spoilers**_**: If you haven't seen through 1****13 (**_**Commitment**_**) then stop reading now if you don't want to be spoiled. I have played a little fast and loose with the events of certain things in 1****14 (**_**Perception**_**) and there is no reference to any thing past that. If there's anything you don't understand, please don't hesitate to ask.**

_**Summary: While the floors underneath our feet are crumblin', the walls we built together tumblin', I still stand here holding up the roof. 'Cause it's easier than telling the truth**__**…**_

_**Official Disclaimer**_**: All Revenge characters and plots belong to Mike Kelley and ABC. I do not hold stock either the man or the company. Emily Thorne, Nolan Ross, and any other character featured are NOT mine. The title and summary comes from the Kris Allen song **_**The Truth **_**and I don't own that either.**

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><p><em>10:22 am<em>

_Friday, August 26th, 2011_

_Southampton, New York_

"Family of Emily Thorne?"

The man looked competent, and Nolan slid his laptop from his knees in order to stand, his back protesting the change in position. He's not alone when he reaches the surgeon, but he and Daniel had been ignoring each other since Emily's advanced directive had been announced, so he really didn't see the need to rectify it now. "How is she?" Daniel asked before Nolan could open his mouth.

"Emily is an exceptionally lucky woman." The man began.

Nolan only takes a second to note that the surgeon's name is Dr. Sinclair, and Ashley is standing directly behind him. "Start with the bad news."

"The impact of the crash fractured two of her ribs, one of which punctured her lung." Sinclair noted that only Nolan nodded while the rest tried their hardest not to look stricken. "We did a thoracotomy to stitch the puncture and assess the area for possible tears. She's been intubated and we inflated the lung."

Ashley reached for Daniel quickly, but Nolan blocked them out. "How long will you keep her on the ventilator?"

Sinclair wasn't surprised to see that Nolan was well informed. "We've started her on antibiotics, but we can't remove the patient circuit until we are sure that she isn't susceptible to hypoxia or further respiratory failure."

"Best case scenario?"

"If we're sure the lung won't collapse again and she doesn't develop an infection?" Nolan nodded, "We can remove the chest tube and take her off of oxygen as soon as the day after tomorrow."

When Ashley thanked God, Nolan ran a hand down her arm on reflex. They would all be amazed to know that he wasn't actually paying her the least bit of attention. He was mentally flagging the information that his correspondences had given him, matching information and making sure he remembered everything correctly. "How long until she's awake?"

"We can start to reduce the drugs in as little as four days." He didn't need to add the phrase _if everything goes well. _While Nolan was taking everything in stride, the other two that were listening intently didn't seem to be. Dr. Sinclair was thankful that Nolan had been the one with the advanced directive. Sticking with Nolan's _best-case scenario_ directive he counted days in his head. "She could be conscious this time next week."

Nolan gave Ashley's back another pat before withdrawing his hand. "And her other injuries?"

With a shake of his head and a smile, he told Nolan all he needed to know. "A broken wrist, sprained knee and ankle and a dislocated shoulder." They had been left for post op treatment, but Sinclair was confident that they were things that, once healed, wouldn't bother the woman. "They're uncomfortable and take time to heal, but nothing life threatening." He watched the two that Nolan was ignoring start to smile and he reached up to touch Nolan's arm, pulling him slightly away from the other two. "The thing that worries me Mr. Ross is her head injury."

Another curse, this one a common four-letter word, and Nolan turned to shut out the two that had already started celebrating that Emily would be all right. Daniel had moved to tell Charlotte what the doctor had said, and both Declan and Ashley were on the phone. "Head injury?" While he was aware that the car had flipped, and that she had been found upside down, it hadn't even occurred to him that she could have hit her head.

He noted the surprise in Nolan's voice and removed his hand. "From what I know about the points of impact and what I could see of the bruising on her head and neck, we're looking at possible frontal and temporal lobe trauma."

At MIT he'd been forced to take a biology course, and everything he remembered of that semester of his life screamed that the frontal lobe was responsible for reasoning and temporal for long-term memories. Nolan took a deep breath and blew it out of his mouth, willing his brain to regroup quickly because Emily couldn't afford for him not to. "How bad?" He said when he realized that the doctor was looking for a reaction.

"Honestly?" Nolan could feel the sarcasm bubbling in his brain. "We can spend all day theorizing, but until she wakes up, we can't know for certain." It was the typical answer, and Nolan didn't really expect anything else. Still, something was better than nothing. "Her EEG's showed no signs of irregularities, and the MRI's don't have any signs of swelling or hematoma." Another mental list started, and Nolan thanked his ADD as a child for allowing him to be better at multitasking as a man. "Traumatic brain injuries are tricky, Mr. Ross. She could wake up and be perfectly fine."

Nolan looked over to where Ashley and Daniel were taking the small victory and then shook his head. "Or not." He finished for Sinclair. "Thanks Doc."

"We're moving her into the ICU now, I'll have someone let you know when you'll be allowed in to see her."

Nolan nodded, unclipped his cell phone and cursed again.

Ed appeared at his side without being summoned, and Nolan thanked every available higher power that he had managed to find the bodyguard. "You need something boss?" He asked quickly, looking around the room to make sure no one else was paying attention to them.

"There's a box." Nolan started, turning to scan the room as well. "I think it's in the floorboards under the rug in the living room." Ed nodded and Nolan couldn't help but wonder if there was a limit to secretive, nonsensical things that he could ask his bodyguard to do for him. "Someone needs to get it and take it back to the house." Ed reached for the phone and Nolan's whole body shook. "No. You do it, I don't trust anyone else." There was another nod and Nolan tried to breathe through the tremor. "And I want a team put on the house. Whatever you need to do. If someone so much as thinks about going near it, I want to know about it."

"You got it." He was given one final glance to make sure that he wouldn't need anything until Ed returned, and the bodyguard was gone.

Nolan considered his laptop. He wasn't sure how long it would take for them to get her moved and situated, but he wasn't thrilled about spending that time pouring over stocks and the latest market research. He probably wouldn't retain any of the information anyway.

"Jack'll be on his way up soon." Declan seemed to appear out of nowhere, shoving his phone in his pocket and glancing around. "He has to open the bar and wait for Bull."

Nolan had almost forgotten about Jack. He had hoped that Declan had been able to relay all of the pertinent information so he wouldn't have to start from scratch. "You heading out?"

He nodded. "The Grayson's took the car, so Charlotte and I were just gonna catch a cab."

Without thinking, Nolan pulled his wallet out of his pocket and handed Declan a card. "Call my service, it'll be faster." Shoving his wallet back into his pocket made him think about texting Ed and asking him to bring a change of clothes when he came back up to the hospital. "Tell them to charge it to me."

The younger man's eyes opened slightly, before he remembered whom he was talking to. "Thanks." Declan clapped him on the shoulder and then pulled his phone out again.

"I'm going to head back to the Grayson's as well." Ashley walked up behind them, smiling as Declan nodded and added one more to the list of people being picked up. Nolan had to resist the urge to announce that of course she was. After all, it wasn't like her best friend was just in an unexplainable car accident. When he noticed that apparently Daniel had joined them as well, he rolled his eyes. "Let me know if you need anything."

He wasn't sure whom the comment was directed toward, but Nolan didn't hesitate to roll his eyes. "Naturally." When Ashley turned back for her purse, Nolan finally allowed himself to look at the Grayson heir.

Daniel was tired, something that Nolan understood well, and he'd shed his coat and tie sometime between Nolan's arrival and the doctor's appearance. His hair was the only disheveled part of him though, which wasn't surprising. Leave it to a Grayson to be the only beautiful part of a tragedy. Nolan ran a hand through his hair and actually had to suppress a laugh at the fact that Daniel's shoes were still shined.

"You don't want to go back to the house?" Nolan watched as Daniel jumped, obviously unprepared for any form of conversation.

"Emily almost died."

It was the most obvious thing that he could have said right then, but Nolan wasn't expecting too much from the other man. "She's going to be asleep for a while." He shrugged, and understood that the look Daniel gave him was warranted.

The clock on the wall ticked on, and both men stood side-by-side and just listened. Neither Daniel nor Nolan understood what it was they were supposed to do while they waited.

Another minute, and Daniel finally coughed.

"Why would Emily have an advanced directive listing you as the next of kin?"

Looking off in the direction of his laptop, Nolan shrugged. "Why does Emily do anything?" He asked softly, choosing to tug at the hair at the nape of his neck. For half a second he considered actually admitted that he and Emily were closer than they appeared. Then Daniel actually looked up at him, and he realized that when Emily made it out of this, he was likely to die. "She probably thought she wouldn't have to use it." He tried to sound realistic, hoping that Daniel wasn't thinking too clearly. "And with how much she and your mother love each other, she didn't want to think about you having to make those kind of decisions."

The door clicked shut behind them, and Nolan turned just in time to see a nurse slide her pen back into her clipboard. "Mr. Ross?"

Moving to where Ed had packed up his laptop, Nolan swung the bag over his shoulder. "If you're not going home, at least do me a favor and have someone bring you clothes?" Daniel seemed to think about it as he ran a hand over his dress shirt. "You look like an Alexander Amosu ad."

There was a second before Daniel looked back up at him. He wasn't sure if the he was joking or not, Nolan wasn't known for telegraphing his humor. He wasn't looking at him anyway, following the nurse to the door back to the room they had put Emily in. Daniel pulled his phone out, contemplating a call to the house to follow Nolan's advice, before changing his mind. Once he saw Emily he would worry about his clothes.

"The attending will let you know when they're done." The nurse was telling Nolan, while people moved about in the glassed room in front of them. Daniel wasn't sure when or how it was decided that Emily was in her own alcove, away from the others that were recovering, but he was grateful that someone had thought of it. Nolan readjusted his bag and nodded to the woman.

Emily was already in the room, moved to a new bed, dressed in a hospital gown – that was on backwards – and her hair pulled into a surgical cap on top of her head. Nolan tried not to let it bother him that he had more or less been ordered to the outskirts while the nurses and ICU team un-hooked and re-hooked her to the various machines on the far wall. They readjusted the position of the monitors and the lines, and he was going to have to ask what kind of damage that they could expect the many electrodes that were stuck to her skin to do to her. The IV at the top of her uninjured hand had three leads running to it, going to three separate bags, and there was a port in the crook of her opposite elbow, marked with some kind of tape that had her blood type written on it. He wondered briefly if that had been started for a transfusion, and then thought against actually asking out loud. As everyone else started to file out, one nurse double checked the leads and reset the blood pressure cuff before turning around.

Nolan was the first in the room, grabbing the solitary chair and pulling it closer to the bed, pulling his bag into his lap in a move he learned in college. He didn't touch her, it hadn't even occurred to him, and when Daniel wandered up to Emily's other side, he tried not to laugh.

"This wasn't what I was expecting." The eldest Grayson didn't mention the fact that he didn't have a place to sit. He touched the air cast on Emily's hand with reverence and then ran that same hand through his hair.

Dropping his laptop bag to the side of the chair, Nolan smirked. "You've never watched ER?" He glanced around the room quickly, noting that chances were high that until they moved her, flowers and stuffed animals with awkward sayings would have to be transported elsewhere. There was a beat before he reminded himself to ask the doctor whether she would be in ICU until she woke up or not. Idly he wondered what was keeping Jack. "She'll get less pale soon, or so I was told."

There was bruising around her temple, and Daniel wanted to ask about it. No matter what he had heard the doctor say, he wasn't expecting this. Almost anything, but this. "I'm gonna…" He fished his phone out of his suit pocket and held it up. "I think I'm going to call for those clothes now."

No matter how hard he tried to hold it in, Nolan failed miserably. "You do that." He said softly, his eyes never leaving Emily.

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><p><em>12:03 pm<em>

_Friday, August 26th, 2011_

_Southampton, New York_

When Jack finally arrived, it was with much less fanfare than Nolan had thought it would be. The duty nurse was told to point him in the right direction, Emily was only one of three people in the ICU anyway, and he slid into the room so quietly, that neither Nolan nor Daniel noticed that he was there.

It wasn't until he heard the quiet gasp that Nolan looked up from his iPad. "Hey Skipper." He said carefully, dropping the tablet into his bag as he stood, conscious of the fact that Daniel was almost asleep on the floor on the other side of the bed. Ashley had sent him up a pair of jeans and a pullover, and Daniel had dozed on and off since he had changed. He placed his hand on Jack's shoulder as he pushed the man to the door. "What did Declan tell you?"

"I want to hear it from you." Jack hoped that whatever Nolan had to say was more coherent, and less technical, then what his brother had said. "How is she?"

"The crash broke a few ribs and punctured a lung." The younger man's hand came up to his face, and Nolan ran a hand over his friends' back. "They patched her up and reinflated, and now they're waiting for her body to start healing itself." It was the Cliffnotes version, missing information such as the fact that it was up to Nolan to make the important decisions and the fact that they may have to give her another transfusion, but it was information that Jack didn't need in the long run anyway. "Prognosis is good. It's just a waiting game."

Looking through the glass, Jack tried to remember to breathe. "Is there enough room in there for one more?"

There was a laugh, the first one Nolan had allowed himself since this whole debacle started, and his arm resumed its position around Jack's shoulders. "As long as you don't mind the floor." He pointed to the spot on the floor right next to his chair and then laughed again when Jack didn't argue.


End file.
